LATEST FROM STEVE
2nd December 2024
Dimitri Van den Bergh has hailed the progress made in Belgian junior darts since he visited Gibraltar in 2019 and was shocked to see his nation was not represented at the JDC World Cup.
Last week, Belgium fielded two teams in the World Cup, with the A team winning their group and advancing to the knockout stage, where they lost in a thriller against eventual runners-up Netherlands B.
This followed 13-year-old Lex Paeshuyse booking his spot on the big stage at Alexandra Palace for this month’s Holiday Inn Express Junior World Darts Final.
It comes on the back of both Van den Bergh and Mike De Decker winning PDC majors in 2024, confirming Belgium’s status as one of the world’s elite darting nations.
“It’s amazing to see how the progress in Belgium has developed to what it is now,” said Van den Bergh.
“One of the very first times I went to Gibraltar, it was the year Adam Gawlas got to the final [2019]. I was seeing all the youngsters from around the world playing against each other, but I didn’t see a Belgium team.
“So when I saw that I thought ‘next year, I’ve got to change that up.’ The year after, I got four young players and I took all the expenses and said ‘this team is going to go’. Since then, Steve Brown made me JDC ambassador for Belgium and that’s a massive honour because the youth is so important.
“And now it’s amazing to see there are two Belgium teams in Gibraltar. I love that we’ve got the future in mind and a lot of good people working behind the scenes to give them what we didn’t have when I was a youth.
“I can only say thank you to Nick Cambre, who’s one of those who works every hard behind the scenes, and as a JDC ambassador I take it very seriously.”
And Van den Bergh hopes Belgian youngsters can draw inspiration not only from him and De Decker winning PDC majors but from seeing 17-year-old Luke Littler doing the same.
“Personally, I just want to be a good example for them,” he said. “I’m the bigger brother of the four in my family, so I always wanted to be a good example for my three younger brothers, and I’m a dad now so I want to be a good example for my daughter.
“That’s also the case in the darts – if young players from all over the world, not just Belgium, can look at me and and think I’m a good role model then that is fantastic.
“For the youth, there’s also Luke Littler, and I’m sure young Belgians are looking now and seeing that not only are Belgians winning majors but there’s also a young guy like them winning them too.”
25th November 2024
The JDC world champion with a message for everyone competing in Gibraltar. The action starts today with the Winmau Junior Darts Open and continues tomorrow with the inaugural Luke Littler Legacy Open.
"Good luck to everyone, and I'm glad the JDC have got a competition named after me. The JDC is where I found my darts. It's got bigger and better, and that's going to continue for many more years."
22nd November 2024
Cameron Menzies has described the week-long junior darts extravaganza in Gibraltar as “a massive opportunity” for the players involved, and said he still feels pride at seeing Scotland win the JDC World Cup a year ago.
The popular PDC star – who won his first ProTour title last month – found out about Scotland’s surprise World Cup triumph on The Rock via social media and was delighted to see videos of the history-making win flooding his feed
He wished every player participating this year the best of luck – but naturally saved a special mention for his compatriots. “The week in Gibraltar is a massive opportunity,” said Menzies. “I’ve seen what the JDC have been doing the last couple of years and it’s bringing more into youth darts.
”The Development Tour is for players 16 and above, but a lot of kids younger than that are playing darts now. Having been a youth player many moons ago myself, I’m sure a lot of these players will be seen on the pro circuit in the next five, six, seven years.”
A year ago, Scotland stunned the junior darts world by winning the World Cup, beating an England team containing Luke Littler in the semi-final, before beating Ireland in the final.
For Logan Gilmour, Kyle Davidson, Sophie McKinlay and Mitchell Lawrie it was an incredible achievement that certainly did not go unnoticed back home – even among the country’s PDC stars.
“It was massive,” said Menzies. “I saw videos of it and I was proud of them. I remember being a kid and I can just imagine that feeling for them. “There’s a lot of good young players kicking about in Scotland. I see what a lot of them are achieving via their parents on Facebook and it’s fantastic. “There are a lot of academies now, including one close to home in North Ayrshire, and it’s massive – and we need that in the sport.
“Darts is changing from what it used to be and academies are giving kids a good environment to play in. Playing in that environment is good practice for what the future holds for them. “So I’d like to wish everyone competing at the JDC World Cup in Gibraltar good luck, especially Team Scotland –bring it home again!”
On his own form, Menzies is feeling more comfortable among the PDC’s elite after a promising year in which won a Players Championship event and reached the quarter-final of a televised major – last week’s Grand Slam of Darts. “I think I’m starting to believe that I belong here,” he said. “I used to take it with a pinch of salt and enjoy the moments because I didn’t think there’d be too many of them. “But now I think I’m getting better and hopefully I can have a run at a major – and hopefully that’s the worlds, because that’s where you want to do well.”
8th November 2024
Russ Bray: Luke Littler is living proof of what the JDC is all about
LEGENDARY referee Russ Bray says Luke Littler is “living proof of what the JDC is all about” as the organization gears up for its showpiece week-long celebration of junior darts in Gibraltar.
The JDC heads back to The Rock from November 25-29, a year after Littler dazzled at the event a few weeks before his stunning run to the PDC World Championship final at Alexandra Palace.
Littler will not be competing in Gibraltar this year but his legacy will live on – not only in the form of the Luke Littler Legacy Open on day two but with a generation of players eager to emulate his achievements in the pro game.
“Obviously Luke Littler’s success has come in the last 11 months – but when you go back even further than that, there are some very good players who’ve won JDC tournaments before him: players who’ve won tour cards and played in big matches in the PDC,” said Bray.
“Now you’ve got Luke, who’s hit the road running and is a massive, massive sensation. He’s living proof of what the JDC is all about.
“And when you look at it from a family point of view, more people are thinking now: ‘We’ll buy our little’un a dartboard; that’ll go up on the wall”. It’s only one set of darts, and it’s not an expensive sport to play, plus you don’t need another team or jumpers for goalposts. “You can stand there and play darts all day long – and it’s fabulous for your maths. It really is a tremendous thing to be involved with, and the JDC is really showing what’s possible for junior darts.”
Bray has long been a champion of the JDC, having been interested in the progress of the organization following its creation by Steve Brown when he was competing on the PDC ProTour. And he said the fact an academy has sprung up in the town where he lives – which has a population of only 12,000 – underlines the growing success of the organisation.
“It’s been amazing,” he said. “I didn’t expect it to grow as big or as good as it’s got. In its infancy, it’s like most things, it starts off slow – and where do you go from there? “The way the JDC has now been built up, with academies all over the country – and all over the world – is fantastic. I live in Soham in Cambridgeshire, which is a small town, and we’ve even got an academy here at the football club.
“What they’ve done and how they’ve got it out there, and pushed and promoted it, is absolutely sensational. And to have a week of junior darts in Gibraltar to end the year, no one could have envisaged that at all. The impressive thing is how it’s kept evolving and got bigger and better."
14th October 2024
JOHN Part’s story is one of the best known in darts: the man from the Lake Ontario shoreline who conquered the world not once, not twice, but three times.
He was the first man to win world titles at three different venues (Lakeside, Circus Tavern and Alexandra Palace) and remains the only non-European to ever win the PDC World Championship.
Part is typically modest about his achievements, putting it down to backing himself, picking his spots and “turning one thing into another”.
And while he said there was no shortage of opportunities for him while he was developing – even 3,500 miles away from the venues in which he would later experience the highest highs in darts – he looks enviously at the systems in place for young players nowadays.
In particular, he credits the Junior Darts Corporation (JDC) for providing “the earliest testing ground” for developing players’ mentalities and giving them experience of high-pressure darting scenarios. “It’s great that the JDC are giving opportunities, creating an earlier starting point for a lot of players to maybe see what they have in reality, competitively, at a more intense level than just kids playing for playing’s sake,” said Part, now a popular commentator and pundit.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that – playing darts is fun! But some want to see what they’ve really got, and when you put yourself under that sort of pressure it’s more like an adult playing, when you enjoy being nervous.
“The JDC is the earliest testing ground for the mentalities and maybe even philosophy, where coaches can help young players competing. It’s not so much how to throw a dart but how to deal with playing a match or a tournament.
“Throwing a dart accurately is important, of course, but a lot of kids put all those hours in and are pretty good at that in any case – everyone develops their own style to some extent. “But for the mental side of things, the JDC is great at opening doors and helping young players deal with the situations that crop up when playing competitive darts.”
When it comes to his own darting journey, Part overcame some serious odds to make it from Oshawa in Ontario to the biggest stages in the sport.
He seized his opportunities in Canada and the United States, before making the leap to the mainstream in 1994 when he won the first BDO World Championship after darts’ acrimonious split. And while it’s an understatement to suggest he didn’t have an easy ride, Part said there were plenty of places for him to hone his skills on the other side of the Atlantic.
“I don’t feel as if I didn’t have opportunities to learn how to play and to do what I do – they were around,” said Part. “They often involved very long drives but they were around in Canada and the US. “I think darts at grass-roots has always had leagues and tournaments, and I think it always will. “Whether or not to go overseas and play was a big decision. I didn’t start doing that until the end of 1993 – and then I only really continued because I won that Embassy tournament. I had to put my own money into travelling and seeing what would happen. “I always had to save enough for my weekends, and I had to win to back it up and make it worthwhile to keep going.
"I was young – mid-twenties – and I didn’t have an urgency in my mind: ‘well, I’ve got to sort my life out this way or that way’. I was giving myself a few years just to see what would go on with the darts – and I’m glad I did!
“But certainly it’s not like someone handed me the keys to the car and I drove it away. I had to hot-wire it or whatever you do – and I went through a few cars!”
And while the level of sacrifice he had to make is not for everyone, he feels it is important that all players making their way in the game experience a degree of sacrifice to fuel their desire.
“I think the key thing when we promote the JDC to the youth themselves, is not to say to the youth themselves: ’You’ve got this great opportunity, we’re laying it all out for you’,” he said. “Individual players will still need to make choices and sacrifices in other areas of their life toward being a good dart player. There’s always going to be sacrifice – nothing just comes along. “If you’re not making sacrifices, you won’t last long because you’re not invested. When you’ve made a sacrifice, you think about what you gave up and you take it more seriously.”
1st October 2024
Such has been his dominance, it’s crazy to think that this time last year Luke Humphries had not won a major PDC title.
Cool Hand has more than made up for it since, winning the World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts, Players Championship Finals, World Championship and World Matchplay, with a World Cup thrown in for good measure.
Someone who has observed Humphries’ rise at close quarters – the commentator Dan Dawson – feels his dominance is unlike anything we have seen since Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen were racking up title after title.
But he says we will have to wait until the end of Humphries’ career to know his true place among the game’s greats. “Luke Humphries holds more major PDC titles than he does not – and, in a couple of those titles that he hasn’t won, he’s been in the final,” Dawson said in an interview with DartAsylum.
"It took an unbelievable Luke Littler to stop him in the Premier League and he missed darts to beat Dimitri Van den Bergh in the UK Open, so it could have been even more dominant from Luke Humphries this year.
“It’s the likes of which we have not seen other than from Taylor and Van Gerwen – it has been that good. How long he does this for is what will dictate where we see him in the list of all-time greats. “He is still a young man and he is also going to have to maintain this sort of level in a professional darting world where I believe the strength in depth is better than ever, so it is very, very difficult. “It’s not just one, two or three rivals he’s got to look out for – there are rivals all over the place. There are players who can throw world-class darts and beat him – but it hasn’t happened very often over the last 12 months. “I do not know where we are going to view Luke Humphries come the end of his career. I don’t know when the end of his career will be. But I think the spell we have seen in the last 12 months has been right up there with the best we’ve ever seen from any player.”
Since lifting the Grand Prix on 8 October last year, he’s built on the undoubted quality he previously showed in dominating on the EuroTour, where he won four titles in 2022 alone. And all from a player who only made his Premier League debut in February this year. “The floodgates have actually opened for Cool Hand,” added Dawson. “I remember speaking to Peter Wright early last year and he was saying ‘everybody needs to watch out, because when Luke starts getting it right, he will be unstoppable’ – and how right Peter Wright was.
“It’s been an incredible rise, he has been sensational, but there were signs. His dominance on the EuroTour, for example. The thing I like about Luke Humphries is that he’s done it in exactly the way you would want him to do – brilliant on the youth system, won everything there; then got on the ProTour and made incremental progress.
“He had a year of making loads of finals, not winning anything, he had a year of winning loads of ProTour titles, mainly on the European Tour. Then the following year, he starts winning majors, he keeps winning majors, world champion, world number one, everything that comes with it. “The question is how long does this last? I mean, there’s no sign of it stopping, it looks like it could go on for some time. But he’s going to have to do it in a highly competitive era with threats from all over the place, so i think it makes it very exciting.”
28th September 2024
JOHN Part believes competing at the JDC’s week of world championship darts in Gibraltar in November is “the dream” for the best young players in North America.
The Canadian legend remains the only non-European to win the PDC World Championship and the only North American to lift the BDO/WDF version.
And he feels the opportunity to play darts overseas at such a young age is a perfect incentive for those looking to make waves outside North America.
The JDC will host a week of tournaments in Gibraltar from November 25-29, with a mix of individual and team events as the best junior players in the world head to The Rock.
“It’s good that there’s a central body like the JDC hosting a World Championship week,” Part told DartAsylum.
“That’s the dream for a Canadian or an American – to go overseas to play darts, right?
“That’s a goal they can look at and think: ‘That’s not ten years in the future – if I do well, that could be in a few months.’
“That’s pretty exciting for a lot of kids. So the more of these clubs and academies that are popping up around the world and can unify to get under the banner, the better.”
In last year’s JDC World Championship, which was eventually won by Luke Littler at Alexandra Palace after every round up to the final was played in Gibraltar, 13 different nationalities were represented in the last 32.
And while darts at all levels is arguably at its strongest in a pocket of Western Europe, Part feels a lot of the work done by the JDC and PDC over the last decade or so is starting to bear fruit elsewhere in the world.
“I think the interest level is greater in Britain to start with,” he said. “But now we’ve seen PDC Europe have got the viewing figures in Northern Europe.
“There’s that market of people who don’t play darts who are now watching darts – and that’s what sustains the pro game, and that trickles down into things where they need to create the new pros.
“The success is good for everybody and now it’s at a point where perhaps some of the opportunities created in the past 10 or 15 years through the JDC and PDC have got results, which keep it going again.”
20th September 2024
Why we can never write off Michael van Gerwen
MICHAEL van Gerwen made me feel very silly this week – and now I’m voluntarily making myself look silly by sharing it with you.
First things first, I’m a huge MVG fan. Not quite the replica-shirt wearing kind you see at the walk-ons, jostling to get a high-five off the main man, but a Mighty Mike loyalist of a decade-and-a-half or more nonetheless.
In the group chats, he’s always the best of all-time – the BOAT – for me (with Phil Taylor the undisputed GOAT) and I maintain that peak Van Gerwen would beat peak Taylor in a one-off contest of any format. If you disagree with me, well, a) you’re not the only one, I can assure you, and b) you can’t prove it.
Having watched Van Gerwen be taken to a deciding leg by Luke Humphries in the World Series of Darts quarter-finals at the weekend, after he had led 9-6, I watched with awe as he pulled himself together to break the Humphries throw and win the match 10-9 in front of a joyous home crowd.
What happened next can happen to anyone: he ran into Luke Littler, who produced an average just under 108 en route to winning nine legs on the spin to turn a 4-2 deficit into an 11-4 win. Van Gerwen didn’t do a whole lot wrong. He averaged a shade under 100 himself and hit 80 per cent of his doubles, albeit five attempts at double aren’t much use in a race to 11.
When Tuesday and Players Championship 20 came around, again Van Gerwen didn’t do a whole lot wrong. In the first round, he beat John Henderson 6-1 with a mighty 109.48 average, before seeing off compatriot Berry van Peer. When defeat eventually arrived in the last 32, it was against Cameron Menzies, who averaged 108.44.
But a few nagging concerns that had recently crept in began to resurface. Concerns such as whether the Dutchman could ever win tournaments again.
It was, after all, 16 months since he had won a ranking title and 18 months since he had triumphed on the Players Championship. His last televised ranking title came in 2022.
On Tuesday evening, I started sketching out an article about MVG in my head. It wasn’t so much writing him off as writing him down a bit; accepting his place in darts’ new world order.
When discussing Van Gerwen not being as good as he was between 2014 and 2017 (and even 2022), it has at times felt like the author Joseph Heller being confronted by an interviewer with: “Since Catch 22, you haven't written anything nearly as good.” Heller famously replied: “No, but then neither has anyone else.” The issue for Van Gerwen is slightly different, in as much as two players named Luke have upped the ante, winning seven of the last 10 televised tournaments between them.
But I digress. When play got underway in Players Championship 21 on Wednesday, I was considering how to tactfully write about a subject that has been troubling me: MVG losing the killer instinct he once had.
We all know what happened next. He ended his wait for a title, beating Dave Chisnall 8-4 in the final in Wigan with a 106.67 average. Not once during the day was he taken to a deciding leg. Was it vintage MVG? Well, at times. And perhaps that is where we are with him.
Most players in the world would celebrate the last few days as one of the best of their career – a World Series of Darts semi-final and a Players Championship win. But we don’t judge Van Gerwen by the standards of most players because he is anything but. This week was reassuring for MVG enthusiasts – and no doubt for the man himself, who was playing with new darts in Wigan – that he can still go to the levels of old. He did it at times during the World Matchplay final in July and he will no doubt do it again.
One thing this week has shown us is that you can never, ever write him off.
17th September 2024
LUKE Littler came into the PDC with “almost no fear of performance” which has only continued as he has proved himself one of the best in the world, according to three-times world champion John Part.
Littler was a dominant force at JDC and Development Tour level going into the World Championship at Alexandra Palace, in which he famously reached the final aged 16, before going on to win a host of titles including this year’s Premier League and World Series of Darts Finals. Part, who has watched Littler’s game closely for years, feels he is able to cope with setbacks within matches as he has enough of a body of work at all levels of the game to know he can respond positively to any adversity. Not that there has been much of that, with Sunday’s World Series Finals triumph offering another glimpse of his vast potential and confidence. Who on earth, for example, beats Michael van Gerwen in Amsterdam with a 107 average? “What is positive as I see it is that fear factor-wise, Luke has almost no fear of performance,” Part told DartAsylum.
“He just knows he’ll play at a certain level. He’s not worried about ‘can I hit a 180 or a nine-dart game?’ He’s thrown so much and he’s won so much.
“Winning really is a help, and being as successful as he was in the junior and lower levels is where he’s developed this base of positivity from winning. He’s very confident in that sense, he knows how to win a match – he’s won enough of them.
“If he started to lose too many in relation to how many he wins, maybe that’s when some doubt could creep in. But I don’t think I’ve seen anything near that with him.”
After winning the Premier League, two European Tour events, two Players Championships and three World Series of Darts tournaments including the Finals, Littler is now routinely among the favourites to win the biggest tournaments.
But because the expectation on him has come from his own performances, Part feels he will be able to control and cope with it.
“All the expectation that’s on him, he’s built through his own performances,” he said. “He learned how to win almost by default, because he’s better than everyone from the massive amount of time he put in.
“But now, as he’s got older, and at the top level of the JDC and the Development Tour, he’s learned how to compete and win against the best players. “He’s had an amazing amount of wins, nine-darters and big moments for 17. He played a long time as a child and had an opportunity to compete in organised competitions through the JDC.”
But despite his success causing a spike of interest in darts in England in particular, Part does not feel Littler is the only show in town where professional darts is concerned. He cites the recent World Matchplay final, in which Luke Humphries beat Van Gerwen 18-15, as how darts is healthy whether or not Littler goes deep in the big tournaments.
“The Matchplay final, when Luke went out in the first round, was still the best viewed final of the Matchplay,” said Part. “It’s not just about Luke Littler – but it’s exciting and he’s certainly sparked that new tier of interest from his age group. I guess it’s glamorous now, like being a football player in England!”
3rd September 2024
DAN Dawson has praised the JDC for taking junior darts into new territories – and said the players coming through the junior system will provide the stories that “carry the game of darts into the next few years and decades”.
The popular commentator is synonymous with the pro game but he keeps a close eye on all levels of darts – and is full of admiration for what the Junior Darts Corporation is doing.
He cited the example of Mongolian teenager Khurelkhuu Tergel as how the JDC is reaching new territories in its quest to unearth new darting talent.
“You look at the number of top players now who have come through the Development Tour and World Youth Championships – that is massive,” Dawson told DartAsylum.
“The next step, of course, is the Junior Darts Corporation, and we can look at Luke Littler as an example of a graduate of that system.
“I can’t say enough good things about the JDC. I think they are brilliant and they too are now expanding into different territories.
“We’ve got Tergel, the lad from Mongolia, for example – there’s so much exciting work going on getting young people interested in this sport and long may it continue.”
Tergel is one of the rising stars of the JDC circuit, and arguably only the tip of the darting iceberg in his home country, where junior darts is being taken very seriously.
Players such as English duo Archie Self and Jack Nankervis are also catching the eye, along with Scottish pair Mitchell Lawrie and Owen Bryceland.
Bryceland gained national media attention – and was name-checked by PDC star James Wade – after throwing a 104.86 average at the age of 10 earlier this year.
“I think you constantly have to have that fresh input of new players, new blood coming through,” said Dawson.
“There always needs to be new stories and those new stories are what’s going to carry the game of darts into the next few years and decades.”
27th August 2024
Dan Dawson: I can’t wait to see what happens next in darts
There are few people in the world who have their dream job. Aside from elite sportspeople who get paid to do what so many of us do for our love of the game, who else truly gets to say they get up every day and love what they do?
Well, Dan Dawson for one.
The commentator has gone from capitalising on a ‘right place, right time’ spot of good fortune to cementing a reputation as one of the most prolific and popular darts commentators around.
He is now a mainstay of Sky Sports’ coverage, as well as a regular on his beloved Euro Tour and other PDC events via the organisation’s streaming service, travelling the world all in the name of talking about darts.
“I’m just very, very fortunate that I’ve been in the right place at the time to have the opportunities that I’ve had, and that darts has grown and things like streaming have grown,” he told DartAsylum.
“It’s given me the chances to be involved in a sport which I think is absolutely sensational. “It’s normal people doing extraordinary things. And that, I think, is what makes it so appealing compared to something like football, where a lot of these guys are groomed from a young age and they’re millionaires before they even set foot on the pitch – then they are detached from the regular person.
“But I think darts is blessed to be a sport where the players are relatable. They’ve got all the same characteristics and flaws as the man on the street – but they are doing amazing things all over the world.
“I’ll watch darts for the rest of my life, and the longer I get to work in it, the better, because I’m in a hugely privileged position and I can’t wait to see what happens next.”
When it comes to the growth and future direction of darts, Dawson is reluctant to make predictions – mainly because the way in which the game has grown in the past two decades could not have been foreseen.
“I genuinely don’t know what the future holds for darts,” said Dawson. “I think if you went back 20 years, people wouldn’t have thought it would get as big as it is now. “Even now, there’ll be the old-school fans who think the PDC stuff isn’t for them – the crowds are too big, too disrespectful, ‘I prefer the Lakeside days when it was all quiet and you could hear a pin drop’, and fair enough: if that’s what you want, that’s fine. “But I don’t think you could argue that what’s happened in the last 20 years has made darts more viable as a sport for the actual players. There are more – and better – players, the standard has gone up, there’s more strength in depth, you’ve got youngsters coming through.
“We’re playing in new countries on a regular basis in front of enormous crowds – Germany has exploded in popularity. We could see that happen in other countries across Europe and indeed the world – and I think that makes it more attractive. “Making it more of a global game, we now need those other players to step up. We saw what happened when Raymond van Barneveld came on the scene – he really put darts on the map in the Netherlands. If we get a German star who becomes a major champion or even a world champion or world number one then that really does change the landscape. Could we get an Asian player to go and do that? It’s exciting times for darts.”
Importantly, Dawson feels that if a star was to emerge in a non-traditional darting territory, groundwork has already been done to allow the sport to capitalise on that. “I genuinely do not know what the ceiling for this game is,” he said. “The sky may be the limit and I hope so, because there is so much untapped potential, particularly over in Asia. “North America is a very difficult market to crack but pretty much every continent now has something going on. Devon Petersen is doing a lot of work in Africa, we’ve started making some tenuous strides into South America, and if the next superstar happens to come from Zambia or the Philippines or Brazil then there is now more of an opportunity to make the most out of it, because there’s more of an infrastructure there and pathways for players to progress. I think the future is bright.
23rd August 2024
Luke Littler
Phenomenon or just the tip of the junior darts iceberg?
LUKE Littler has turned the darting world on its head since exploding onto the scene by reaching the PDC World Championship Final on his Alexandra Palace debut.
From winning a second straight JDC World Championship to becoming the most famous 16-year-old in the UK in a matter of days, his progress has showed no sign of slowing. Now the most famous 17-year-old in his homeland, Littler is the Premier League champion and has won titles on his World Series, Players Championship and European Tour debuts.
But is he a one-off or is there plenty more talent waiting to explode from the junior ranks? While there may not be many players in their final year of JDC eligibility likely to make a huge immediate impact in the PDC, there is an array of talent in the younger age groups who could be on their own paths to greatness.
We take a look at seven of the best who are making waves, listed in no particular order.
Archie Self (England)
At 14, Self is the new JDC world number one, having starred on the Advanced Tour this year.
Self finished top of the rankings after winning four of the 16 events, setting the tone by winning the first event of the tour – and not looking back. He also reached three further finals.
While Self’s talent is evident (he reached the World Championship semi-final in Gibraltar last year) he has also shown plenty of resilience in his young career. Having lost his Advanced Tour card in 2022, he won it back at Q-School, and this year was crowned the overall champion.
He will head into the second half of 2024 brimming with confidence and will travel to Gibraltar a few weeks after his 15th birthday looking to make a real impact.
Jack Nankervis (England)
Nankervis was only 12 when he won the Foundation Tour last year, winning six events in the process to catch plenty of eyes in the darting world.
Now 13, he has followed up his breakthrough year by making a huge impression on the Advanced Tour, winning three events and finishing second in the table. Had he beaten Self in their quarter-final on the final day of competition, there is every chance he would have gone on to claim the title.
Nankervis is one of many talented young stars who will have an eye on Gibraltar at the end of the year, having made waves there in 2023. He led Littler 2-0 in the MVG Masters final before eventually losing 6-3, as well as throwing a 101 average in the Winmau Junior Darts Open.
Tergel Khurelkhuu (Mongolia)
Those in the know feel 13-year-old Tergel could be the first Asian darts superstar.
Had he not run into a certain Littler (who averaged 107) in the second round of last year’s JDC World Championship, Tergel may have turned more heads than he already has. Tergel averaged 94 in his first-round match at the worlds, not long after turning 13, and produced a string of 90+ averages during the four-day end-of-year showpiece on the Rock.
He then justified his decision to travel to England for the JDC’s Advanced Tour Q-School, becoming the first player to book their spot on the tour. Missing an entire weekend of Advanced Tour action in April (it’s a long way from Mongolia to Coventry) cost him a chance of pushing for the title, having reached a final, a semi-final and two quarters on the opening weekend.
But Tergel is definitely one to keep an eye on in the coming years – and is only the tip of the iceberg as far as Mongolian darts talent is concerned.
Owen Bryceland (Scotland)
The 10-year-old Scot produced one of 2024’s “are you being serious?” moments when he averaged 104.86 on the JDC Foundation Tour in April.
That led to inevitable comparisons with Littler – and drew commentary from players such as Michael van Gerwen and James Wade, the latter writing in his newspaper column: “I have recently thought that a 10-year-old could beat me – and that would literally be the case if that was Owen Bryceland.”
Bryceland has qualified for next year’s Advanced Tour – an incredible achievement for one so young.
Mitchell Lawrie (Scotland)
Another up-and-coming star from Scotland is Lawrie, who won the Foundation Tour this year, winning a record-breaking seven events in the process.
For a 13-year-old, Lawrie has plenty of big moments under his belt already, hitting the winning dart for Scotland in the JDC World Cup last year, qualifying for next year’s Advanced Tour and surpassing compatriot Bryceland’s 104.86 average with a 107.36 on the Foundation Tour.
Scottish darts is making huge strides at junior level – and Lawrie is at the forefront of their charge.
Jack Marshall (England)
The 13-year-old has caught the eye in recent weeks, becoming the first player to win three successive events on the JDC Advanced Tour since 2022.
For a player who did not get past the quarter-finals of any event on the Foundation Tour last year, this is incredible progress – and goes to show not all players develop at the same age or speed.
Marshall finished fifth in the Advanced Tour rankings and will be looking to challenge for the title in 2025.
Paige Pauling (England)
To say the 16-year-old was the outstanding performer on the inaugural JDC Girls Series would be an understatement.
Not only did Pauling win the title, she did so despite missing three of the eight events. In the five events in which she did play, she not only won them all but went undefeated, winning all 29 of her matches on the tour.
She has since gone on to reach two quarter-finals in a day on the PDC Women’s Series, beaten by Mikuru Suzuki and Beau Greaves, respectively.
20th August 2024
Van Veen praises JDC and hails Littler for raising darts’ profile among young people
Gian van Veen feels Luke Littler’s rise has played a massive part in increasing the popularity of darts among young people – and said it’s good for the game as a whole.
Van Veen was beaten by Littler at last year’s World Youth Championship and then saw the English teenager reach the PDC World Championship final before going on to lift the Premier League title on his debut.
At 22, van Veen’s rise has been steadier than Littler’s – but the talented pair are likely to clash many times in the future as they push their way up the PDC rankings.
“The youth is the future of the game, as you can see now with Luke Littler coming through,” the Dutchman told DartAsylum.
“I think Luke is a massive help, especially for the UK with all the JDC academies. So many players are wanting to play darts because of Luke Littler. I think that’s a massive help for the sport.”
Van Veen was recently in Bristol to help launch the latest JDC academy – and has been impressed by the young talent coming through the system.
“Especially here now with the JDC, it’s massive, especially for the kids from 12 or 13 years old or even younger, to have some other kids around them playing against each other and becoming better players – and especially to enjoy the game,” he said. “It’s really massive for the sport.”
Having taken up darts at 10 when he played in a tournament at his local football club, van Veen would rush home from school to get on the dartboard.
And he said enjoying the game must be the priority for any youngsters taking up the sport.
“You have to enjoy it,” he said.
“You have to enjoy practising at home or playing with your friends. If you don’t enjoy it, it’s not going to last. You could play as well as you want – you could hit the 104 or 107 averages but six months later you don’t pick up a dart anymore because you don’t enjoy it, it’s not going to work. So enjoying the sport is the most important thing of all.”
The Dutch No 5 was impressed by what he saw on his visit to Bristol.
“I saw some players who were like 12, 13 years old who were hitting straight 60s, straight tons,” he said. “I was like ‘wow, I wish I could do that at that age!’ But as long as they enjoy it, they should be fine. There are some proper players here!”
13th August 2024
Ian Holloway on his love of darts: It’s taught me more about life than football has
IAN Holloway is best known as a football manager who twice won promotion to the Premier League – most notably with Blackpool – and for his humorous post-match interviews.
But while the former Queens Park Rangers midfielder has earned his living from football, he told DartAsylum how darts is the sport that has taught him most in life.
In an exclusive interview in his home city of Bristol focusing on his love of darts, Holloway revealed how the mental side of the sport – and the fact you cannot blame a team-mate when things go wrong – had taught him so many life lessons.
Having first picked up a dart before he could even reach the board, darts has been a huge part of Holloway’s life for more than five decades.
“It’s human to have doubts, and those doubts keep you safe sometimes,” said Holloway “But if you’re going to be an elite dart player, you can’t have any doubts. You’ve got to bin that. They’re not allowed.
“You can’t throw one unless you believe you’re going to hit what you need to hit. And if you do fail, you’ve got to sort that next dart out, because you could still get 121. Sixty, sixty. That’s still a good score.
“In life, I’ve probably learned more off my wife, who had cancer. I probably learned how she now deals with the rest of her life and that’s taught me more than darts.
“But darts would be second, football would be third. Because in football you can blame someone else. It’s the referee’s fault, it’s this fault, it’s that fault. With darts, you can’t even blame a referee. You can think you’re unlucky because it might hit the wire and bounce out but shut up mate, you still didn’t throw it right!”
Holloway’s love of darts has got him in trouble a few times, not least when he was Grimsby Town manager during the Covid pandemic. His club was the first in England to be punished for breaking Covid rules – because Holloway and his players were sharing darts at the team’s training ground.
Another time, when he was Blackpool manager, he was thrown off the practice board at the World Matchplay and told he hadn’t earned the right to use it.
“Darts teaches you so much about your mind,” he said. “I’ve always had one at a training ground or brought one in and made sure people can have a go. And even if they’re not very good at the start, most footballers can – hand-and-eye coordination – get better at it, and then the difference makes you believe in what else you can improve. I’m a massive fan of it, honestly.
“I was at Blackpool. I was invited along. I got thrown off the practice board because I wasn’t a pro. And I went: ’How do you know I’m not a pro?’ He said: ‘Well, you’re Ian Holloway!’
“He said: ‘You were throwing all right but get off that board, you haven’t earned the right to be on that board.’ And do you know what? That was painful. ‘You’re not a pro.’ Because I would have loved to have done that as well.”
When it comes to favourite players, Holloway has admired many over the years, including Eric Bristow (“his darts floated – I just loved it”) and Michael van Gerwen (“I didn’t like his celebrations but I love him really”).
But there is one player who stands above them all – and it probably won’t surprise you to know that is Phil Taylor.
“You could see people wilting on the stage against him,” said Holloway. “It was like a bouncy castle going down because murdered them mentally. Honestly, sometimes it was horrible to watch.
“People will tell me playing and watching Phil, he was probably the most arrogant of the lot – I didn’t see it that way.”
Of the current crop of players, one in particular has made a positive impression on the veteran football manager: Luke Littler.
“I think he’s quite amazing,” he said. “You look at him and think how can he be that mature at that age? Luke looks to me like no matter what happens, he’s going to be there, he can deal with it. I’d be worried if I’m the rest of them.”
Some celebrity darts fans like to turn up at Alexandra Palace at Christmas and make sure they are seen at the big events – but Holloway’s love for the game is a genuine passion and runs deep.
And he is deadly serious when he credits darts with helping him to punch above his weight in football, where he made more than 100 Premier League appearances and then went on to manage almost 1,000 professional games.
"How did I end up as a football manager after I finished playing for QPR, when I played with all those wonderful players who were a million times better than me?” he said. “Why weren’t they QPR manager? Why was it me? It was something to do with my Dad and his mindset and how he made me believe. I think Dad moulded me with that, darts helped me with that.
“I can’t give it all to darts but a huge part of my whole life has been totally and utterly: ‘Why can’t I hit what I want to hit there?’ and then: ‘I’m going to do it and I'm going to practice.’ I was lucky that I found sport, particularly darts, because it’s a mind-numbingly brilliant game that helps you in the rest of your life if you can master it.”
6th August 2024
LUKE Humphries’ darts career so far has been built on graft, dedication and taking nothing for granted – and with Luke Littler on the scene that is not about to change.
Humphries enjoyed an end to 2023 and start to 2024 that had echoes of Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen at their very best; from October to March it looked as if he couldn’t be beaten.
In fact, during that period, he won 31 of 32 matches in majors at one point, including a breathtaking 24-match winning streak which saw him add the Grand Slam of Darts, Players Championship Finals and World Championship crowns to the Grand Prix he won to break his major duck.
The way he breezed through the World Cup of Darts with Michael Smith, and the World Matchplay in Blackpool, he will take some stopping again as we head toward the big autumn and winter events.
“I feel like I’ve worked my way from the bottom to the top, so I know that not everything comes easy,” he told DartAsylum. “I really had to work myself up the rankings.
“I think it really took my career to the next level when I won the Grand Prix. I was crying out to win a major title, I was getting closer and closer and closer, making semi-finals but never getting back to that major final [having lost to James Wade in the 2021 UK Open final], which is what I needed.
“Finally I did that and I took full advantage in beating Gerwyn Price in the final, and then I went on this mad run where I think confidence prevailed for me and I felt like I couldn’t lose. I felt every game I was playing, I was playing so well that no one could touch me.
“You go through periods in your career where you feel untouchable, and there are certain points where you feel you’re very vulnerable and you could be beaten.
“But that period of three to four months after the Grand Prix, I still sit back and can’t believe it myself the way I played.”
Even though Humphries won the world title at Alexandra Palace, he arguably lost the battle for clicks and column inches as Littler’s sensational run to the final at just 16 captured the darting world’s imagination.
Not that any of that bothered Humphries in the slightest. In fact, their rivalry is one built on mutual respect and a shared experience of navigating the heights of the game at the same time.
Humphries’ first big win arrived only seven months before Littler bagged the Premier League at the first attempt – and we are likely to see an awful lot of the pair of them in the future, although Humphries knows that won’t happen by itself.
“I haven’t been around at the top for ten years, so it’s not as if he’s come along and taken my shine,” said Humphries.
“I’ve only just started getting myself into the top echelons of darts like he has, so I feel like we’re coming through together in a way.
“I only managed to reach my bit of greatness in October, and he’s done his in December, so I kind of feel like we’re doing this together.
“That’s why we have that mutual respect for one another and you can’t not respect how fantastic he is as a person as well as a player. These kids have no fear but I don’t class him as a kid anymore – he’s got such a mature head on his shoulders.
“He’s going to continue to grow and get more experience – and the more experience he gets, he’s going to get better. So it’s up to me now to keep practising hard, to keep pushing him, because if I don’t get better, then he will – and he’ll win everything.”
30th July 2024
Gian van Veen has told DartAsylum he feels his first PDC title win “is coming” – and that he hopes he has played his last ever Development Tour event after breaking into the world’s top 32.
In a wide-ranging interview, the rising star also talked about the latest generation of young Dutch players and how he grew up idolising Gary Anderson.
“I’m really enjoying my darts at the moment,” said the 22-year-old. “It’s going well this year. I had a great year last year, so I was always intrigued to see how this year would go after a great year, but I’m really enjoying it so far and I’m happy with where I am.
“My goal for this year is to pick up a title – and I feel it’s coming. I feel a big run is coming – maybe a final and hopefully, eventually, a title."
Having burst onto the scene by reaching a Players Championship final in 2022 – before he had a tour card – van Veen has continued to build.
After reaching the European Championship semi-final toward the end of last year, he led Damon Heat 7-3 in the sixth round of the UK Open in March before losing 10-8. In 2024, he has also reached two Euro Tour quarter-finals, two Players Championship semi-finals and won two Development Tour events as well as reaching two more finals.
With the top 32 in the world prevented from competing on the Development Tour, he is eager to move on from a tour he acknowledges has served him well.
“It’s a very different expectation – the difference between that and the ProTour is massive,” he said.
“Walking into the room at the Development Tour, you’ve got the new players who are looking up to you, thinking ‘wow, he’s here now and I want to beat him!’ You’re walking into the room expecting to at least make the final or win titles.
“That’s what I’m expecting of myself on the Development Tour but I really enjoy it, especially this year. But hopefully I’ve played my last ever Development Tour already! That would be amazing.”
Van Veen is only eight months into his career as a full-time darts player. Having graduated last August, he took a part-time job in the aviation industry in the Netherlands, before focusing exclusively on his darts in January.
Not having to worry about his degree or a job away from the oche is allowing him to prioritise his climb up the rankings.
“After a busy weekend or week of darts, I come home and I don’t have to worry about work or go to work anymore, so it’s been really nice,” he said.
Unlike many young Dutchmen, van Veen’s darting idol when he was growing up wasn’t one of his own country’s superstars but a Scot who has resided in England for years.
“My idol when I was younger was Gary Anderson,” he said. “When I started I was 10 years old, it was around 2011, 2012, when he made the World Championship final, when he won the Premier League, and it was so easy to look at – still is. He’s playing phenomenal nowadays. But he was always my idol I looked up to.
"A good friend of mine was always a fan of Adie Lewis and I was a fan of Gary Anderson and they played lots of great matches back then, so it was always a good battle.”
With Michael van Gerwen (3rd), Danny Noppert (16th), Dirk van Duijvenbode (20th) and Raymond van Barneveld (28th) and van Veen all in the top 32, the young star also praised the next generation of young Dutch darters he feels are going to break through.
“We’ve got loads of good players: Wessel Nijman, Jurjen van der Velde, Owen Roelofs, who all played in the JDC tournaments and are now flying the flag on the ProTour and are doing fantastic,” he said. “You’ve got Danny Jansen without a tour card but No 1 on the Challenge Tour and so many great players from my age, as well as younger players who are coming up.”
26th July 2024
SHOULD darts be in the Olympics? It’s a debate that tends to surface around this time every four years, as minds wander to gold medals and a fortnight of wall-to-wall sport on TV
Luke Humphries generated a few headlines recently when he said that yes, darts should be in the Olympics. “It’s the biggest sport in the world that isn’t involved,” he said
Cue the usual frantic keyboard-bashing in the comments section as darts players were dismissed as not being athletes, along with all the usual tired clichés about size and shape.
But the world champion and world number one had clearly thought about that, too, as he added: “I've seen many say, ‘You just throw darts at a board, it isn’t an Olympic sport', but then are archery or shooting Olympic sports? They don’t require athleticism, it is aiming for a target. We do the same.”
Having covered the 2012 Olympics pretty much in their entirety, I have seen the good, bad and the indifferent of what the two-week sports extravaganza has to offer.
Having sat through hours of archery at Lord’s cricket ground, I can guarantee it doesn’t have anything on darts when it comes to excitement or intrigue. Or athleticism. At least darts players walk to the board to retrieve their arrows.
When it comes to spectator appeal, shooting is another sport that cannot compete with darts. And that is before you even get into some of the frankly bizarre offerings of the Olympics. Yes, I’ve watched a session of synchronised swimming in person, and no, I have never met a single person who follows it, could describe what actually happens or name a single synchronised swimmer.
But let’s not punch down on other sports while simultaneously bemoaning those who punch down on darts. Let’s focus on the positives.
Part of the joy of the Olympics is finding a sport you never knew you liked, but which, upon discovering it, could easily sit and watch for hours.
For me in 2012 that was handball, which up close is a frantic and fast-paced sport that is very easy to follow and get into, while in other years as a television viewer, I have enjoyed all manner of sports I found through channel-hopping.
The nature of darts makes it perfect for this kind of discovery. The game is quick, simple, made for TV. No tactics or defensive play, just pure attack. Something is always happening. You haven’t won – and by definition therefore haven’t lost – until the winning dart is thrown.
Those who often pour scorn on darts’ credentials point to the perceived sacrilege or dumbing-down of the Olympics by moving away from the traditional sports. But how far back do you want to take it? In the first Games in 1896 in Athens, there were only nine sports compared with the 32 we have today, while only 14 nations and 241 athletes (all men) took part.
The Olympics is always changing. Breakdancing will make its debut this year, we’ve seen skateboarding and surfing introduced previously. The inclusion of tennis doesn’t please everyone and yet tennis was one of the original nine sports back in 1896, before later spending decades out of the Games.
Let’s be honest, it would be great fun watching darts at the Olympics, but it won’t be an easy journey for it to get there.
The lack of one overarching governing body would likely be a hindrance, as would the queue of other sports lining up for their shot at inclusion. The Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations has 42 members, with squad, netball, karate and others all jostling for their chance, alongside potentially less likely candidates such as tug-of-war.
And while alcohol is not on WADA’s banned substances list, there would inevitably be some pushback around its presence within the game.
But as Humphries said: “We’ve grown the sport massively now. It’s not the sport it was looked at 20-years ago. It has matured and cleaned it's act up and very professional now. So I’m not sure how we go about getting it in, but I really think it should be.”
23rd July 2024
